


Finn-ding Love

by beautifulbb8 (nerdqueenenterprise)



Category: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Fluff, M/M, Post TFA, also kisses!!, background BB-8 Leia Snap and Jess, poe has a crush, that's it that's the story
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-21
Updated: 2018-01-21
Packaged: 2019-03-07 21:14:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,761
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13443531
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nerdqueenenterprise/pseuds/beautifulbb8
Summary: Poe visits Finn's bedside after his battle with Kylo Ren.





	Finn-ding Love

**Author's Note:**

> hello and welcome to "i accidentally fell down the stormpilot hole and now i live here". get comfy :D

    “I, uh.” Poe scuffs his boot across the floor. “Brought you… flowers?” 

Because that’s what people do, right, when they’re visiting a loved one in the hospital, right?

Finn doesn’t move or reply or show any sign of recognition. That’s because he’s in a coma.

Poe knows that.

And here he is, with stupid flowers as a feeble excuse for coming to see Finn, and the shaken feeling of a recent victory.

    “I’m gonna get a vase or something,” he mutters, fleeing the awkwardness in the room.

 

He settles the flowers in a little pot filled with water, and puts it on what might be supposed to be the bedside table.

    “They -” He clears his throat. “I put them on the bedside table. I, I hope you like them?”

Finn doesn’t reply. Because he’s in a coma. Right.

Poe clears his throat again. Now that he’s here and has fulfilled his primary mission of bringing Finn flowers, he doesn’t really know what to say.

    “I hope, uh, you’re gonna feel better soon.” Generic and cliché. “Uh - we… Starkiller Base was destroyed. Thought you might be happy to hear that. I hear that Rey won against Kylo Ren, but uh - I also hear Han Solo died. I’m sorry. He was a decent guy.”

Kriff, this is hard. Usually when he visits people here, they’re awake and they’re already his friends and he knows what to say and he isn’t weird and awkward because he’s never weird and awkward, and he wasn’t weird and awkward around Finn when he was awake, right?

Right?

Oh, stars, he was, wasn’t he? 

Stupid. Not like Finn was - is att-

Yeah, no, actually Finn is the most attractive person Poe has ever met probably. It’s the smile, and how he gets excited, and the honesty in his eyes, and… 

This is bad.

    “Can you even hear me, buddy?” Poe teters for a moment before sitting down next to Finn, his weary feet welcoming the change. He’s still in his flight uniform, probably smells of smoke and burnt plasteel and sweat. He should shower and then join the celebrations. But Finn would be alone here, and it’s Finn they should cheer for, he’s the hero.

    “Um… so Starkiller is destroyed. Lost a couple pilots, but… well, most made it home.” That’s gonna come later for him - trying to write to the families, and then… remembering. He’s Black Leader, he’s responsible for all of them. “Rey - Rey’s gone to look for Luke Skywalker, together with Chewbacca. She’s going to become a Jedi, probably. Not that - well, General Organa told me that that’s probably going to happen. She sends you her well wishes, by the way. The general, not Rey. But - I… I didn’t talk to her, but she also sends them. Probably. Uh.”

He’s such a laserbrain, it’s horrible. It’s coming down from the damn adrenaline high, mostly; makes him an idiot for a while.

    “They both send their well wishes, ‘s what I’m trying to say. And Chewbacca does, too. I actually talked to him. He says he’s sorry he almost, ha, killed you.”

Poe runs a hand through his hair, belatedly realizing he should probably take off his gloves.

Kriff, he needs some sleep, that’s what it is.

    “Anyways, um, I hope… well. You’re a hero, Finn. I hope you know that. They - what you did, you know, that was really brave, and… we couldn’t have stopped them without you. And you did all that after already walking away from them. That’s - damn, that’s impressive. You’re a good guy, Finn. I’m so happy I met you.”

Poe teases his split lip with his tongue, wondering what else he can say to get the message across.

    “You’re a hero,” he repeats eventually. “And… I’m honored to be your friend.”

The silence hangs between them again and Poe wants to bash his head against his fighter.

    “Was that too much? That was too much, wasn’t it? Yeah. I don’t know, I should… I should go see the others. Sleep. Get the Jakku sand off of me. Can you believe I still didn’t shower? Feels like it’s been a year since… since I met a really kriffing brave Stormtrooper.”

He reaches over to squeeze Finn’s shoulder. 

    “You take care, buddy, yeah? Yeah.”

  
  


He drags himself into a blissfully hot shower and goes to get wasted, retelling the story on how he met today’s hero over and over, and what if he sneaks in a crazy chase all over Jakku together with wild fights to add some drama to his story? Not like he or anyone else will remember it in the morning.

  
  


BB-8 wakes him with shrill beeps, ramming his bed repeatedly, metal hitting hollow metal and grinding on the horrid headache Poe already has, and the bed jars and shudders underneath him.

    “Wh - Bee, jus’... urgh, kriff. Turn the light off?”

The droid doesn’t but keeps yelling at Poe instead, almost unintelligible through the pounding in his head.

TIE fighters.

TIE fighters??

    “TIE fighters!” He almost falls over his feet jumping out of bed, and then almost over BB-8 as the droid rolls around his feet.

Feet into boots and a jacket that he’s struggling to get into while already running down the corridor, almost knocking into Snap. Beeb screeches updates, and they’re faster than Poe can comprehend, really, but the hangar is already filled with people, getting ready anything that has a weapon mounted, and the wind is cool on Poe’s sweaty forehead and in some other universe he doesn’t stop halfway up to Black One’s cockpit to suppress the need to retch.

His vision is really blurry. His forehead feels really hot. His hair is plastered to him, his ears staticky and his hands somewhere far away.

An X-Wing takes to the skies.

     “Commander Dameron!” a tech calls. “Commander Dameron, are you okay?”

He lifts a hand, swallows down the threat of bile coming up.

     “Fine,” he manages.

Stars, if he survives this flight, he’ll never touch a drink again.

BB-8 shrieks a series of high notes at him to get into the cockpit, but it’s the warble of a TIE fighter above that properly sets Poe back into motion and then they, too, leave the ground.

  
  


    “Beeb, can you land?” he asks, voice feeling odd even to himself.

Someone in the open fighter channel expresses concern, but BB-8, precious orb that she is, keeps her opinion to herself and initializes landing.

He manages to climb down, but then he has to stabilize himself against the hull.

BB-8 bumps his shins gently, beeping a soft couple tones in concern.

Jess knocks her shoulder into him harder than he’d like.

    “Please tell me you overdid it on whatever that purple stuff was too.”

Poe groans in answer. “I don’t even remember the purple stuff.”

    “That stuff? Awful. I wouldn’t even use it as fuel for my fighter.” That’s Snap, and his voice sounds about how Poe feels.

  
  


They crash in the pilots’ rec room, because that’s where they’re close to the coffee that’s so strong the general had it outlawed in quarters.

Poe kicks his boots off and gently settles his pounding head against the back of the couch. Jess flops onto his lap and while Poe’s already fading in and out of awareness, a cuddle pile of completely hungover pilots accumulates around them.

It’s probably kind of funny.

And cuddly.

And the droids are warbling softly in a corner, probably gossiping about their stupid masters.

  
  


He wakes up again earlier than anyone else, already feeling much better.

There’s the general standing in the room. Looking at him.

Kriff.

Oh,  _ kriff _ .

    “A word?” she asks, clearly bemused.

    “Of course.”

He fishes for his shoes, removes Jess’ head from his lap and carefully climbs over the puppy pile of accomplished Resistance pilots.

The general leads him outside, where the hangar is deserted, clearly indicating that what she has to say is for his ears only.

    “You know, back when I was your age, we wouldn’t even have been able to fly the morning after such a huge victory.”

He can’t tell whether she’s joking.

    “No, really. I’m impressed, Poe. The level of professionalism you and yours continue to display is admirable, even if all of you drank more than your own body weight last night.”

Oh.

    “Thank you, general.”

    “That’ll soften the blow of me telling you that you’ll have to run triple shifts now, won’t it?”

Poe chokes on his spit a little.

General Organa smiles.

    “I’m sorry, that was mean. But we need a new base. And I want security patrols to be doubled. Everything that flies will run patrols. If we get surprised like this again, we might not live to fight another day.”

    “You’re right,” Poe admits.

    “What do I throw in to sweeten the deal? New paint jobs? Better cannons? Alcohol?”

    “General, we - we’re all here because we believe in freedom, and -”

    “No, I know, but I can already hear you thinking on how you’re going to break this to your crews, and how you’ll squeeze in visits to your boyfriend.”

    “My - my boyfriend?!”

    “Finn.” She gives him a meaningful look.

    “I - he isn’t my boyfriend.” His cheeks heat up. “He’s - he’s my friend, he’s a hero, he -”

    “Well I’ve never seen you bring your friends flowers when they got injured. But yes, he is a hero. And I’m sure he’d appreciate being in a new, safe base.”

    “Yes ma’am.”

  
  


When he breaks the news to the others later, they’re surprisingly docile. Maybe it’s the residual alcohol.

  
  


Poe’s on the first scouting trip, leading one semi-experienced pilot and one complete rookie. He’d conferred with General Organa and she’d agreed - there was absolutely no sense in not splitting up their squadrons so that every group has approximately the same level of experience. 

Leia has also reactivated a few juddery and seemingly centuries old planes, just to fill in their ranks, and Poe had (very begrudgingly) given Black One over to the rookie with him. 

Sure, Mazoota’s stats are exceptional and it makes a lot of sense to give the safest plane to the least experienced person in the group, but Black One is his baby.

On the other hand, walking up to the table of rookies, more or less dropping the new schedule onto them like a rock, then calling out Mazoota’s name and telling her, “you’re on the first shift with me. You take Black One; she’s currently being fuelled up. We leave in ten.”, and just staying long enough to see her jaw drop and have her stumble her way through an acknowledgement of the order, that had been fun.

Poe’s ancient Mark B fighter gives a last shake and finally stills once they’re clear of D’Qar’s atmosphere.

    “Glad that’s over,” he quips into the open channel. Tower won’t reprimand him for unnecessary chatter anyways, but if he has to sit quietly for the next eight hours, he’ll probably open the atmospherical valves and choke himself. So it’s better to start chatting right away. “The fact that any of the Mark B’s ever manage to escape reg-grav is astounding, isn’t it? Wonder what’d happen if we tried escaping grav-2. Or more.”

    “Are you okay, commander?” Sonnor g’Taz’ voice is tinny through the old speakers.

    “It’s Poe. And yeah, I’m good. Just… miss my baby.” BB-8 twitters in agreement. “Mazoota, you take good care of her, okay?”

    “Will do, sir.”

  
  


He’s dead on his feet when he finally manages to check in on Finn. At least he’s only smelling of stale cockpit air this time.

    “Hey, buddy,” he says, going to sit by Finn’s side again. “How are you doing? We got attacked this morning, which wasn’t fun. Or… last morning, I think. So we’re going to move bases, as soon as we found a good spot. We’re running double shifts, everyone.”

There’s a spot of lint on the shirt Finn is wearing. He picks it off.

    “Thought we’d won, you know? It felt like we’d won, and the First Order was… you know, was defeated. Even though I’ve been with the Resistance for… well, for a while. I should’ve known better, I guess.”

Finn breathes so calmly you wouldn’t see it if you didn’t know it. And man, does Poe want to crawl onto the cot with him and sleep for a bit.

    “Doctor Kalonia says they’re regenerating half your spine, so you’re kept in an artificial coma and it’s not actually a real coma, and it’s just so you don’t die of pain or something. She also says you can probably hear me, so, ha, I better watch what I say, huh?”

He watches Finn for a bit, mapping his face with his eyes.

    “They also say you’ll definitely make it. I’m glad, you know. I was - when they carried you off the  _ Falcon _ , I was so worried. You looked - you didn’t look good, not at all. I mean - kriff, of course you looked good, you always look good, but I mean… you didn’t, you know, look… healthy? So I was worried, is what I’m saying. Rey was worried too. But she’s away now, so you’ll have to live with my company.”

Someone folded Finn’s clothes neatly and stowed them in the little cube in the wall next to his bed, the jacket on top. It really did look good on Finn. If one of the floating markets is going to come by anytime soon and Poe has the time, he’ll probably look for a new one, but he doesn’t regret giving it to Finn.

    “Was that - the jacket, is that… Did they let you keep personal items in the First Order? Was there off-duty wear? Little… Stormtrooper pajamas? Slippers? Did you guys have sleepovers where you did each other’s hair and talked about crushes? In - in Stormtrooper school, I mean. Well… probably not, right? Doesn’t seem like it would happen. So… I don’t want to sound - conceited, or anything, but. Does that mean the jacket is the first - the first thing you ever owned? That was yours? Also… you probably don’t want to talk about it, but I wonder what Stormtrooper training was like. Tell you what - you answer some burning questions I have, and I’ll let you take a spin in Black One. How’s that sound? Maybe we’ll find a planet with beaches. We could race there, and - I’d ask for Jess’ fighter, and we could race to the beach. If you, well, if you like beaches. Maybe you don’t, I don’t know, maybe you hate sand after Jakku, so if you don’t want to go to the beach, that’s fine, you know, we can do something else.” He thinks that though for a moment. “Or - you’re your own person now, so you - if you don’t want to do things with me, that’s fine, I mean… you do you, and all that.”

Finn looks so peaceful like this. It had been pretty obvious that he’s hurting, somewhere deep down where you can’t fix things with a hug and some nice words, and Poe - Poe wants to protect him.

Which is ridiculous, because he’s heard about how Finn fought on that planet, and on Starkiller, and he - he left the First Order, for kriff’s sake, and that alone makes him stronger than everyone else combined.

    “Do you know how to swim? Is that something they teach you in Stormtrooper training? Also - heh, look, maybe you don’t like swimming at all. Maybe - maybe not. And also I don’t mean to, hm, be like that, you know? Like… you know people who take their dates swimming on the first date just to see whether they’re - pretty or have a nice body or anything, that kinda stuff. That’s a shit move. I don’t - I don’t mean it like that, you know. Also! Kriff, yeah, no, I didn’t mean - I didn’t mean to go there as a date or anything. I’m not - of course you’re beautiful, and you’re - kriff, you’re  _ Finn _ , and you’re probably more Force-sensitive than the whole Jedi order, and you - you’ve got a pretty smile, you know that? And my jacket really does look good on you, but I bet anything would look good on you, but the point is, I didn’t mean - not as a date, I mean. Friends, you know, we’re friends.”

He needs sleep.

    “Anyways, I’m glad you’re - that you’ll be fine. You have a good night, Finn.”

He lumbers to his feet, patting Finn’s shoulder awkwardly for a moment before making his way back to his quarters.

  
  


BB-8 sleepily beeps at him from her charging station.

    “I visited Finn,” Poe offers.

_ Finn? _ And just like that, she’s wide awake again.

    “He’s doing fine. He’ll make a full recovery, which is… great, you know? We need people like him.”

He goes to shower and brushes his teeth and finally flops into bed, hugging his pillow.

    “Night, BB-8.”

  
  


    “Morning, sleeping beauty!” Poe announces maybe a bit too loudly, getting comfortable on the edge of Finn’s cot. “So, I’ve got more reports to file than there are TIE fighters in the galaxy, and I thought it’d be easier with some company. I’ll even read them out loud for you. This one’s an especially interesting one. It’s about fuel efficiency. Riveting stuff, that. But it might just get us some of the better stuff from the New Republic, so I’ll be nice.”

 

He works on his reports, intermittently reading paragraphs to Finn. At some point, BB-8 comes in, bleeping loudly enough to make Dr Kalonia shush her, but she’s just excited to see Finn again. 

    “Who would’ve thought you’d rise in rank so quickly that you’d lead droid meetings, huh?” Poe chuckles and puts his reports aside to give in to her request of getting on his lap and seeing Finn. “Boy, you’re heavy.”

BB-8 spends a few very long minutes cooing at Finn, which is very cute, but Poe can barely feel his thighs anymore, and he’s very grateful when she finally hops off.

 

She keeps him company while he works, and doesn’t laugh at him when he gets lost in thought looking at Finn for a bit.

 

Poe pats Finn’s shoulder again when he leaves. Which feels… kinda good, and he spends his time in the shower thinking about the look on Finn’s face when he saw him alive.

_ And  _ about the feeling in his stomach when he saw Finn in his jacket.

  
  


There’s almost a week where he doesn’t see Finn, then, because after an ambush they’ve got five pilots injured, and someone’s got to pick up the slack. Poe has no problem flying for sixteen hours a day, but twenty is a damn close call, and he neglects his other work, too, and his hair takes the brunt of it, losing its regularly conditioned and well-cared for shine. 

 

He loves his hair, but he loves Finn more, so the first day he’s back on sixteen hours, he gives up his precious shower time to sit with Finn. Who he likes a normal amount, “because you’re my friend, Finn, and… and I really like spending time with you. I mean - if what the doc says is true and you’re basically awake in there, then man, you must be bored out of your skull!” He laughs. “Sounds like… sounds like torture, to me, just lying here waiting for some laserbrain to show up and chat with you so it’s less boring.”

He doesn’t quite know what to say next, because he doesn’t want to bore Finn with last week’s tale of accumulating hundred and twenty-ish flight hours with nothing but unsuitable planets and the vast blackness of space, interspersed with annoyance at the Mark B he’s still flying. Kriffing wonder that that thing hasn’t given up on him yet.

    “I miss you,” he says finally, the mixture of coffee and bone-deep tiredness and nothing but spatial static in his ears for hours making it easier. “I - really like you, Finn. You’re so kriffing brave, and so… so optimistic, and you’re a damn good shot, good fighter, and you’re… a hero, and all that, and you’re so honest and so - dunno, but I feel like you’re a very altruistic person. You know. Nice smile. Really nice smile, man, hope that I can see it again sometime soon. You - ha, that’s weird to say, but you smell really nice. From what I got from that time we hugged, at least. I mean - you were sandy and sweaty and obviously smelled like stale spaceship air and a hint of Maz Kanata’s bar - don’t think I’ve never been there, buddy. I know exactly what it smells like - or smelled like, I suppose - and you’ve been there, don’t lie. And, but, below that, there’s… Finn. Maybe we can hug again sometime, yeah? So I can properly smell you.”

That jolts him back to awareness.

    “Or not! Not at all, it’s weird, what the heck, I wouldn’t - that’s weird, it’s weird. Let’s forget I said that.”

Welp. He’s such a nerfherder sometimes.

    “Anyways. Um. Yeah, we haven’t found a new place yet. We’re getting desperate, but… what can you do, right? I... I’m a little scared, Finn, if I’m honest. I don’t want it to be over. Can’t really say that ‘round the others apart from my squadron - I’m Black Leader, I can’t get scared - and I see my guys, well, I don’t see them a lot these days, so… nobody really to talk to, if you know what I mean. It’d scare Beeb too, so… well. Probably not fair to tell you either, but - I’ve got no-one else to talk to, you know? So… maybe, if you’re awake in there, just…” Poe’s fingers have trailed to Finn’s, hesitantly running over the back of his hand. “Wish us luck?”

  
  


He fixes Finn’s jacket one day when he’s run out of things to read to Finn, out of things to tell him, out of shy little admissions.

    “I hope you like it. I hope you’ll keep it. I hope… I hope  _ I’ll  _ get to keep you.” Out of admissions? Apparently not. “Not in the - I mean - obviously, you’re your own guy, and you do whatever in the whole galaxy you want to do, and obviously you don’t have to stay, like, with me, or with the Resistance, or anything, but I mean.. I hope I get to keep you in my life. That you’ll want to stay. You know. Because I like you, I like you a whole damn lot.”

  
  


He gets a chance to hang out with Snap before long, but they’re in the pilots’ rec room, so Poe can’t exactly cry himself out on his friend’s shoulder.

    “I’m a little worried,” he admits hushedly.

    “That we won’t find a new place in time? Yeah, me too. You’d think there’re opportunities left and right, it’s a big galaxy and all, but…”

    “Yeah. I’d prefer not dying from whatever new weapon of mass destruction those fascist freaks are building now.” Poe laughs a bit bitterly and takes a swig of his coffee.

    “What about the Force?”

    “What?!”

    “Well, you know, we’ll never fully lose because there always needs to be balance in the Force. Or something. I’m no Jedi.”

    “Finn is.” It just slips out. 

    “And here I was thinking he was a Stormtrooper.”

    “He - Luke Skywalker’s lightsaber. He had it. He fought with it. Isn’t that - don’t lightsabers only work if you’re a Jedi?”

Snap snorts. “I don’t know anything about that. But what I do know is that you’d like for him to be, wouldn’t you?”

Poe blushes and stares into his cup.

    “‘Oh, we wouldn’t have won the battle at Starkiller if not for Finn. You don’t know who Finn is? Oh man. Finn is a hero. He’s the bravest man I ever met, and -’”

    “Yeah, yeah,” Poe interrupts Snap. “I know I said that. And it’s true! Finn  _ is  _ a hero.”

    “And you’ve got a crush on him the size of Starkiller, don’t you?” Snap’s grin is delighted. “Pooeeee?”

Poe groans and finishes his coffee. “He’s just -”

    “Smart, funny, beautiful? Brave? A good hugger?”

    “And so much more. So maybe I have a crush. So what?”

    “Nothing, it’s cute. What are you going to do when he likes you back?”

    “I don’t know. What do people do when cute guys like them back? Just… die?”

    “ _ Stars, _ Poe! You’ve got it bad, don’t you?”

    “I like his nose!” Poe bursts out.

A couple others turn towards them, and Poe blushes.

    “I like his nose,” he repeats more quietly. Snap looks like he’s seconds away from bursting out laughing. “He’s got a cute nose. I like it.”

    “ _ That’s  _ what you’re focusing on?! His nose?”

Poe buries his face in his hands.

    “I don’t know, Snap. I mean - yeah, he’s got a cute nose. Really - really beautiful eyes.”

    “M-hm.”

    “Shoulders? I don’t know, I like guys with broad shoulders. He’s about my size, too. Smells good. He laughs. Loyal. So compassionate.”

    “Oh, Force.”

    “He protected Beeb, Snap. And he - Beeb says he’s a really great guy.”

    “Wait, how much time did you even spend with him if BB-8 knows him better?”

    “Uhh… well, we were in the TIE fighter for… twenty minutes? And then I saw him when we landed, of course.”

    “For how long?”

    “What? I don’t know that, Snap. Doesn’t matter, either, because… he’s a good one.”

    “I’m not saying he isn’t. I’m saying you know the guy for less than an hour, and you’re completely gone for him.”

    “Gone for who?” 

That’s Jess. 

Poe lowers his head so she doesn’t see the blush spread all over his face.

    “Commander Dameron has a crush on the Resistance’s hero. Finn. You might’ve heard of him.”

Poe does not need to look up to see the absolute shit-eating grin on Snap’s face. Stars, why can’t he have nice friends.

    “Finn?” The surprise in Jess’ voice is fake. It’s a lead up. Poe’s going to die of embarrassment. 

    “Oh, you know, we wouldn’t have won the battle at Starkiller Base without Finn. You don’t know who Finn is? Oh, man, he’s a hero. Bravest man ever. Really, you should’ve seen him. I’ve only ever met him for five minutes, but he’s beautiful, and he’s brave, and I love him. I gave him my jacket, you know, the one jacket I would  _ never  _ be parted from. That jacket. He didn’t even need to ask me, I was just so taken by his smile that I fell to my knees right there and then -”

    “Alright, that’s enough! Snap, stop it. I like the guy, alright?”

Jess hops onto the couch between them.

    “Poe Dameron, you’ve got a crush.”

  
  


He does. He lies awake some nights and thinks of Finn. Not too often, because he’s tired to his bones, but often enough. 

And he thinks of Finn when flying, about having him next to him in a cockpit or of showing him around the base or of introducing him to home cooked foods or of holding his hand and joking with him and cuddling into him.

The first time he actually thinks of kissing him, he almost drops his breakfast tray.

Kissing Finn.

Wow.

That would be… electrifying, probably, and warm and solid and - and good. So good. 

He manages to compose himself and carry on with his day, more or less.

  
  


The next time his head hits the pillow he thinks about it again. About Finn lying next to him and just pressing a soft kiss to his lips and then have Finn smile.

Poe rolls onto his other side and tries to think of something else. 

Instead, his brain lets imaginary-Finn snuggle up to him from behind and breathe onto his neck and Poe’s heart hurts a little.

He falls asleep to the idea of Finn hugging him.

  
  


He’s on another tour with Mazoota and Sonnor, who’ve both started actually chatting with him on occasion, even though he needs to periodically remind them that they’re supposed to call him Poe. BB-8 is humming an adorable little tune, and they’re en route to a system that looks very promising.

Because of the Mark B that Poe flies, they have to do a lot of short jumps through Hyperspace so the engines don’t strain too much. He can’t wait to get his fighter back.

 

The first planet in the system is far too volcanic, the next one turns out to scan for toxic fumes, but they’re able to land on the third one.

They descend and the clouds clear and -

    “Oh,” Poe breathes. “That’s pretty!”

Perfect, golden beaches and green trees and an impressive set of mountains, toxin-scans negative, no indigenous species…

They land on one of the beaches, and a gentle breeze ruffles Poe’s hair when he opens the cockpit.

The sand is a little hot and Poe goes so far as to climb over a few stones to dip his finger in the water. Warm.

It all checks out. Plenty of natural resources. Flora indicates a temperate climate. Like a little paradise.

  
  


They meet back at the beach to share their findings while BB-8 plays with the waves lapping at the sand. 

    “So… we’ll take this one then?” Mazoota sounds like she can barely believe it.

Poe shrugs. “It’s the best place we’ve found so far, and we’re incredibly pressed for time. I can’t think of a single reason why the general wouldn’t take it.”

    “So we go back and tell her, right?”

Poe grins and takes a step back, already throwing off his jacket and kicking off his boots.

    “How about we make sure that the water is suitable for swimming?”

He kicks the rest of his clothes off down to his underwear and dips his toes into the water, letting waves tickle his toes. Oh, but it feels good to have nothing but sand under his feet and wind in his hair. The Resistance should allow for more time off, really.

Beeb chitters at him that it’s safe, and it is, and it’s nicely warm.

Poe dives under and lets himself melt into the water. It tastes a bit of… flowers, actually.

He dips back up and shakes the water from his hair.

    “Uhh.. commander?” Mazoota calls out, teetering at the edge of the surf.

    “You should come in!” he calls back, waving at her. “It’s great! It’s warm, and it’s safe, and I think we deserve an hour or so of rec time!”

  
  


He spends some quality time flopped down on the Mark B’s upper hatch, sun-heated metal almost searing into his skin and then he bakes a little, the breeze playing with his hair.

Even though the water had relatively little salt, his hair is already going nuts with curls, but he’s too relaxed to really care.

Stars, he needed this. Like a big hug from the universe.

BB-8 is warbling softly in the distance, probably poking at all kinds of shells and rocks that she’ll later beg Poe to take home with them, and the waves are whispering and he’s so warm and his back is finally uncramping from the Mark B’s horrible seat, so he naps a little, the nice warm kind of nap where you drift in and out of awareness.

  
  


    “Commander?”

BB-8 beeps a couple high pitched notes, her equivalent of Poe’s name.

Poe groans softly and blinks. It’s a bit cold now, but maybe there’s just clouds in front of the sun.

    “Commander Dameron?”

He pushes up, neck aching from having stayed in this one position for so long.

    “Mmh?”

It’s pretty dark.

    “How long’d I sleep?”

The sun is just setting, casting the most lovely orange glow over the ocean.

    “Oh,  _ kriff _ !” Poe almost falls off his perch in his scramble to get to his clothes. “Kriff, kriff, kriff, kriff! Why didn’t you wake me? Nevermind, why did I fall asleep?!”

He tears at his flight suit to go back on, and the vest and his boots and the jacket over that, leaving his boots unlaced, and they scramble back into their planes and are on their way.

  
  


Leia smiles in understanding and says something about how she appreciates Poe’s honesty, then sends him off to deliver the good news to Finn, who’s scheduled to wake up sometime very soon.

Which…  _ oh! _

 

Poe takes the time to run over to his quarters, rinse off, and then stare at his wardrobe in despair. He’s got… a lot of beige shirts with varying ways to do them up. A lot of dark nondescript pants that all look the same. His other favorite pair of boots is only different from the one he’s wearing because they lace up differently.

Also, most of his shirts have stains on them somewhere, engine grease and oil and whatnot, stuff you never get out of fabric.

This is bad.

There’s also his formal uniform. He can’t wear that, can he?

No, he can’t, that’d be weird.

 

In the end, he picks his cleanest shirt and a fresh pair of pants, gives his hair a stare of despair because there’s nothing he could do now to make that curly mess look better, grabs his jacket and ignores BB-8’s teasing giggles.

  
  


He’d hoped that he’d be the only one with Finn, but the small corner is already bright with laughter, because of course Jess and Snap have listened to enough of his hapless crushing that they now want to meet Finn, the hero, the man of Poe’s heart, themselves.

He really crushed that badly, didn’t he?

And he really told his best friends that much, didn’t he?

And he really never shut up about the guy, didn’t he?

He did. All of it.

Honestly, who let him outside on his own? Who gave him an X-Wing and command over the Resistance’s pilots? Who lets him do  _ anything _ when he’s such a human disaster?

    “Hey guys.”

     “Poe!” Jess jumps up to hug him. “So you heard the good news! Your boyfriend is going to wake up!”

    “He’s not my boyfriend.”

    “Sure thing.”

He sits down on the edge of Finn’s bed again, the same spot he always takes. 

    “Hey, buddy.”

Finn doesn’t react. Not yet. The display of his vital functions says all kinds of interesting things that Poe doesn’t understand, but it’s all green, so it’ll probably be good.

  
  


They chat and they laugh and wait for Finn to wake up. Dr Kalonia shows up occasionally to take a look at Finn, but Finn stays his sleeping beauty self.

Poe threads his fingers through Finn’s and then almost falls off the bed in laughter at a joke Snap makes.

He gets teased some more - this time they think he purposely made his hair fritz like crazy, which he didn’t, and that leads him to describing the paradise of a planet they’ll move to, gloating a little that he got to have the most amazing dip today.

That knocks them down a couple notches, and then Jess accidentally burns herself with the joke she makes, and Snap teases her instead of Poe, and all is right again. 

And then there’s movement on Poe’s side and -

\- and Finn opens his eyes.

    “Hi,” Poe says, feeling a little stupid.

There’s a moment where Finn is clearly piecing together where he is and what’s happening and getting accustomed to the bright light.

And then he smiles and Poe’s heart stops.

    “Poe Dameron!”

Ideally, Poe would stop time now and go somewhere secluded and yell for a few hours. 

    “Hi, buddy,” he says instead, unable not to smile back, because the most beautiful man in the whole galaxy is smiling at him, like the most radiant sun.

Finn sits up, a bit stiffly, but he doesn’t seem to be in any pain, and his hand is still in Poe’s, but the grip isn’t loose anymore. Poe’s heart is somewhere in his chest, like he’s doing a corkscrew loup-de-loup in his fighter.

    “How do you feel, Finn?”

    “Pretty - pretty great, actually.”

    “Yeah? That’s amazing.”

I’m so glad, he wants to say. So glad that you’re alive and awake and you’re not in pain and you’re smiling at me and you’re holding my hand. I never want to let go of you. 

    “Hey, Poe?”

    “Yeah?” Poe Dameron, monosyllabic and stupid.

Finn lifts his free hand. That’s what Poe will remember later, in stupidly explicit detail.

Actually, he’ll remember a lot of things.

Finn lifts his free hand and cups Poe’s cheek. Because that’s something you do. With friends.

Finn lifts his free hand and cups Poe’s cheek and squeezes his other hand and he leans forward and he’s still smiling and his fingers brush against the curls around Poe’s ear and he leans in and…

Well, and then he kisses Poe. Short. Sweet. His lips are a little chapped, but plush and warm. 

He’s very close to Poe. And he’s holding his face. And his hand. 

And also his heart, of course.

A lot of things happen all at the same time then.

There’s Dr Kalonia, who walks in and says, “Finn, great that you’re awake.”

There’s some kid who comes in, completely out of breath, yelling Poe’s name.

There’s Finn’s hand around his and the other hand on Poe’s cheek and he’s kissing Poe. On the lips. With his lips.

Poe’s mouth is still slack because he’s currently being kissed by Finn. On the lips. Finn just woke up and did that.

And then Finn slips in his tongue. Dips it right in, teases it against Poe’s, and then slides it out again.

Poe moans.

Finn pulls back. Finn is still smiling. Finn looks a little dazed, but nowhere near as dazed as Poe feels.

    “Commander Dameron, we have to evacuate the base right now! The general has sent for you!”

They need to evacuate the base right now.

Finn had his lips on Poe’s lips. He had his tongue in Poe’s mouth. He’s still holding Poe’s hand.

    “Commander!”

They need to evacuate the base.

    “Commander!!”

Finn  _ kissed him _ . On the lips. With tongue.

    “Commander?”

Base. Evacuate.

    “Yeah.”

Finn is… really beautiful. Looks a little confused. Lips slightly open. Hand on Poe’s cheek. Fingers entwined with Poe’s.

  
  
  


His feet don’t quite belong to him when he’s sprinting down the corridor, because he’s still sitting on the corner of Finn’s bed, holding hands, staring into his eyes, because Finn kissed him.

He bursts into the central meeting room, and… and then the magic is gone, sucked somewhere into the drag grey walls and the air of terror.

 

He doesn’t feel like he’s breathing while he runs through how to best build a convoi. 

He doesn’t feel like he’s breathing while he’s snapping orders.

He doesn’t feel like he’s breathing while he’s taking enemies out.

He doesn’t feel like he’s breathing when they finally line up perfectly in the black of space, leaving without a trace, en route to a really beautiful location.

  
  


And then they’re setting up a base and Poe isn’t breathing yet, either, because he runs on too little sleep and too much caffeine and hoping that the golden feeling in his chest doesn’t die before he has a chance to actually marvel at it.

Finn’s doing a shitton of physical therapy and sleeping, as far as he hears. Poe is doing a shitton of physical work and no sleeping.

  
  


    “Go see your boyfriend.”

Poe blinks at the general, more than just a little confused. He’s still not breathing.

    “The base is practically finished. Go see your boyfriend.”

    “Excuse me?”

    “Poe.” She pulls him into an almost hug, rubbing his shoulders and down his arms. “You have been working around the clock, getting up before everyone else and going to sleep after everyone else. I know you would build this base by hand if I’d ask you to. Rest. Sleep a little. Eat a little. Kiss Finn again, I’m sure he misses you. Take a shower. But whatever you do, if I see you working again in the next four days, I will… well, I’ll have to think of an appropriate punishment.”

He doesn’t ask how she knows he kissed Finn. General Organa knows many things.

Instead, he goes to find Finn.

  
  
  


    “Hi, buddy.”

Whatever he wants to say next is swallowed in a hug, Finn’s warm chest against his, arms around his back and his neck, a heartbeat next to his, a hand in his hair.

Poe breathes again.

Finn smells really good. Poe closes his eyes and buries his nose in Finn’s shoulder, and this time they don’t let go.

**Author's Note:**

> so i hope you liked this! please leave me a comment if you did, and come say hi at [@beautifulbb8](http://www.beautifulbb8.tumblr.com)!


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